"The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas charts the pervasive, asymmetrical flows of cultural products and capital and their importance in the development of the Americas. The volume offers a comprehensive understanding of how inter-American communication is constituted, fram
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ed and structured, and covers the artistic and political dimensions that have shaped literature, art and popular culture in the region. Forty-six chapters cover a range of inter-American key concepts and dynamics, divided into two parts: 'Literature and Music' deals with inter-American entanglements of artistic expressions in the Western Hemisphere, including music, dance, literary genres and developments. 'Media and Visual Cultures' explores the inter-American dimension of media production in the hemisphere, including cinema and television, photography and art, journalism, radio, digital culture and issues such as freedom of expression and intellectual property." (Publisher description)
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"Global Media Giants takes an in-depth look at how media corporate power works globally, regionally, and nationally, investigating the ways in which the largest and most powerful media corporations in the world wield power. Case studies examine not only some of the largest media corporations (News C
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orp, Microsoft) in terms of revenues, but also media corporations that hold considerable power within national, regional, or geolinguistic contexts (Televisa, Bertelsmann, Sony). Each chapter approaches a different corporation through the lens of economy, politics, and culture, giving students and scholars a thoughtful and data-driven guide with which to interrogate contemporary media industry power." (Publisher description)
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"This article analyses and discusses Mexican public policies regarding the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT). We aim to show how digitization, in the Mexican context, can be thought of as an opportunity to change the duopolistic structure in television in order to obta
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in higher quality and greater content diversity. The methodology used here consists of a structural historical analysis of communication policies with an emphasis on digital switchover, paying special attention to the social power relations that have led to the current structural conditions of the concentrated Mexican communications system. Overall, preliminary results obtained in this research show a lack of clarity in DTT policies of the last two administrations (Vicente Fox 2000-2006 and Felipe Calderón 2006-2012) and a reinforced hegemony of the economically dominant broadcast and telecommunications actors: Televisa, TV Azteca and Telmex, in detriment to public service, competition, local TV stations, independent production, content quality and audiences in a broader sense." (Abstract)
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"El libro consta de 20 capítulos. El primero de ellos es un estudio introductorio del coordinador titulado “La estimulante diversidad de la radio iberoamericana”. Además de presentar el volumen, Arturo Merayo hace un primer análisis comparativo de los informes de cada país. Particular releva
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ncia tiene la clasificación que ofrece de los diferentes modelos de radio pública que existen en Iberoamérica –muy diferente al del modelo de radio pública europea–, y la referencia a la puesta en marcha de redes internacionales de emisoras comerciales para intercambiar programación informativa –cuestión en la que Europa también ha fracasado en varias oportunidades–. Los restantes 19 capítulos ofrecen la radiografía de la radio de los países de la región, presentándolos por orden alfabético desde Argentina hasta Venezuela, con la excepción antes mencionada de Nicaragua. A pesar de que el resultado es bastante homogéneo por la extensión y calidad de los capítulos, hay que destacar los dedicados a la radio en Bolivia, Colombia, México y Perú. Sus autores han sabido mostrar la realidad del medio con claridad y gran capacidad de síntesis, lo que facilita al lector hacerse cargo de la evolución y situación actual de la radio en dichos países y obtener conclusiones relevantes. El libro se cierra con una anexo en el que se relacionan las 1.162 emisoras y cadenas mencionadas, indicando en cada caso el capítulo principal en el que se citan." (Reseña por María del Pilar Martínez-Costa Pérez en la revista Communication & Society, 2008)
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